The present invention relates to generally to the content matching techniques and more particularly to techniques for comparing contents of images to identify images that contain matching content.
Advancements in the technology and popularity of information capture devices such as digital cameras, scanners, video cameras, etc. has led to an increased amount of information being stored in the form of digital images. There is accordingly an ever increasing need for automated techniques and tools that can compare contents of digital images and find matching images. Several techniques have conventionally been developed for comparing contents of images to find matching images. However, each of these conventional techniques is tailored for images possessing specific characteristics such as image quality, resolution, blur, image segmentation characteristics, occlusions, image color, etc. Accordingly, selection of which technique to use depends heavily on characteristics of the images being compared. A specific conventional technique can be used to compare images possessing a particular characteristic but is ineffective for comparing other types of images. For example, certain conventional techniques can be used for comparing black and white images but cannot be used for comparing colored images.
In light of the above, there is a need for automated techniques that can be used to compare various different types of images possessing various different characteristics.